Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
I stood there, processing his words, letting them sink in. Make sense. I wasn’t sure if I could trust them. But I wanted to. I wanted it all to be real.
“Fawn,” he said in a husky whisper, gently taking my chin in his fingers, “if you’ll forgive me, come back to me, you will call the shots. I’ll cater to your every whim. You will tell me what to do. Not the other way around. You’re right; Gypsi is your daughter. I had no right to make any decisions about her without discussing it with you and getting your approval. The only excuse I have is that I’ve always been wired that way. I will need work to fix myself, but I am begging you, please, fix me. Just for you.”
I felt a tear roll down my cheek. This wasn’t what I’d expected from him. I’d thought he would use my weakness for him against me. I had never imagined that he’d come to me like this. Humble, willing to hand over his ironclad control to me. Not once had I thought Garrett Hughes would beg me for anything. Much less me.
“Please, don’t cry. I can’t take that. I’m so fucking messed up in the head right now over hurting you,” he admitted.
I sniffled and wiped the tear from my cheek. “I’m sorry. I’ll try, but you can’t unleash all that on a woman and not expect her to be overwhelmed.”
He studied me so closely that it was as if he was desperate to read my thoughts. “What do you need me to do? Tell me. I’ll do it. Right now.”
“What are you asking for exactly?”
He brushed my hair back from my face. “You. I am asking for you.”
I wanted to throw myself into his arms and say yes, a thousand times yes. But I couldn’t do that. I had learned my lesson with this man. A painful lesson.
“What does that mean? We go back to dating? But this time, you won’t have men stalking my daughter, and you won’t control my job or any part of my life?”
He nodded, looking down at me, the pleading still there in his dark gray depths. “Whatever you want. However you want it.”
I frowned. “Garrett, I don’t think you can do that.” It was hard to say, but he needed to face the truth.
He held my face in his hands as he looked at me with such fierceness that it took my breath away. “I can do anything I need to do to have you. Keep you. I can’t lose you.”
Perhaps it was the words spoken, so completely raw, or the imploring look in his eyes. Whatever it was, the moment my resistance crashed and burned to the ground at my feet, I knew it.
I nodded, emotion clogging my throat.
“Yes?” he asked with hope flaring in his eyes.
“Yes.”
His mouth slammed down on mine, engulfing me with his spicy scent and taste. I went on my tiptoes and buried my hands into his hair peeking out of the back of his hat. His arms came around me, picking me up and holding me to him as he licked, teased, and consumed me as if he couldn’t get enough.
We went on like that for several minutes until my body was humming with desire for more—which I knew I couldn’t sate tonight. All my anxiety and doubts seemed to dissipate with his desperation for me. I knew when I’d left him, I had pushed him. I had done something no one else dared to do—refuse to give him what he wanted. The fact that he wanted me more than the power that clung to him was impossible to believe. Yet here he was. Saying just that.
His lips left mine, but he held his mouth so close to mine that our breaths mingled as we looked into each other’s eyes.
“Tell me what you are willing to do. Give me something.”
I wasn’t ready for this question just yet. I wasn’t sure what the options were. “I don’t know exactly. You have a date this weekend, and I guess I need time to digest this all. When you get back—”
“Fawn, do you honestly think I am taking another woman to the derby when I just stood here and told you all I want is you?”
I had hoped he wasn’t taking her, but then who was I to assume anything?
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Yes. You bought her clothes, and it’s days away.”
Garrett pressed a kiss to my lips. “She went shopping and sent me the tab. She can keep her clothes. But she already knows she isn’t going with me. I called and ended that before I got here.”
I felt guilty for being elated at her being dumped so quickly.
“Don’t look concerned, pretty baby. She got plenty out of it with the clothing she’d bought. Unlike you, she had no issue with spending my money.”